Minnesota musicians are now uniting against ICE via compilation albums
Published in Entertainment News
MINNEAPOLIS — Twin Cities musicians have been turning out in droves to sing, blow or drum on the streets in protest of ICE’s Operation Metro Surge. Now, they’re also lining up on record.
Two bulky compilation albums are being released this weekend featuring more than 130 different Minnesota artists between them, each doubling as charitable fundraisers. There’s also a national compilation record on the way called “Contra-ICE, Vol. 1,” featuring members of the Beastie Boys, Bikini Kill, Black Pumas, Fishbone and Rage Against the Machine.
The first and biggest of the all-local collections, titled “Melt ICE,” was releasing Feb. 12 to the artist-friendly retail/streaming site Bandcamp.com. Among its 109 tracks are songs by She’s Green, Kiss the Tiger, Yam Haus, Ber, Laamar, Durry, Lazerbeak, Bad Bad Hats, Papa Mbye, Colin Bracewell, Raffaella, Molly Brandt and Chutes.
“This is a testament to the connectedness of the Minnesota music community, as well as Minnesotans’ eagerness to contribute to the cause,” said Chutes frontman Ryan Kemp, who co-organized “Melt ICE” with fellow song contributors Anna Devine and Jonny Fuller (aka Jonny Darko).
The other compilation from the Twin Cities music scene, “Thaw,” features 30 mostly young acts who flooded one of two Minneapolis recording studios offering free session time to capture new songs related to the ICE surge. Its roster includes 26 Bats!, Bathtub Cig, Finick, Zola, the Homie Front, Careful Caroline and Scramble the Jets.
CD copies of “Thaw” are being hurriedly manufactured to sell at the Feb. 15 I.C.E. Out! protest concert at First Avenue with Hippo Campus, Durry and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. There also will be digital-order options via Bandcamp and itsthemess.com, the website for one of the studios/labels behind it, the Mess Records. (The musicians nonprofit Twin Cities United Performers will funnel the ticket funds from the Feb. 15 concert into the local immigrant community.)
Unlike the “Melt ICE” collection — mostly featuring recordings the musicians already had on hand — all of the songs on “Thaw” were written in the last month, including several inspired by the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents.
“Some of these people wrote the song on a Monday and were in recording on a Thursday,” said Caroline Litteken, proprietor of the Mess Records, who co-helmed the project with Drifter Music Group’s Adam Schaberg.
Litteken and Schaberg, who both contributed songs to “Thaw,” said even more impressive than the immediacy of the project was the emotional impact.
“I was reduced to tears for several of my sessions just being able to hear how it’s impacted other people, and hear it transferred to music,” Litteken said.
Noting the fact that many of “Thaw’s” contributing songwriters are in their 20s, she added, “I think this is just the start of a bigger movement.”
More veteran acts are involved in the “Contra-ICE, Vol. 1,” compilation, which was organized by the same California organization that printed up “ICE Out” towels to hand out at last weekend’s Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California. Release info is still pending on that collection, but a Contra-ICE representative said it will indirectly benefit Minnesota immigrants via two national organizations, National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Union Del Barrio.
Money raised from the “Melt ICE” and “Thaw” collections will go to the MN Together fund and Twin Cities United Performers, respectively. Both Twin Cities-based grassroots organizations assist immigrant families and others affected by ICE operations.
‘Melt ICE’
Who: 109 acts including Ber, Laamar, Lupin, Papa Mbye, Colin Bracewell, Bad Bad Hats and Durry.
Online: bandcamp.com
‘Melt ICE’
Who: 26 Bats!, Bathtub Cig, Finick, Formerly “CAM,” Lena Nine and 24 more.
Online: themessrecords.bandcamp.com and itsthemess.com
‘Contra-ICE, Vol. 1′
Who: Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, Kathleen Hanna, Tom Morello, Ozomatli, Fishbone, more.
Online: givebutter.com/lIKbKd
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